Illumination devices are employed in a wide variety of contexts. Various types of fine work require high intensity illumination over a small area at a relatively short distance from the eyes of a user. Examples of such fine work include surgery, dentistry and watch and jewelry repair. Illuminating headsets are suited for these types of work as they allow a light to be projected at an area while leaving the hands free to manipulate tools or surgical equipment.
Prior art headsets typically have a remote source of illumination connected by a fiber optic cable to the headset. The remote source of illumination is typically a bulb, which may be, for example, a metal halide or a xenon bulb. A suitable lens is provided to couple the bulb output to a fiber optic cable, in the headset. While the fiber optical cable attached to the headset is cumbersome and may be inconvenient to the user, the power requirements and heat output of metal halide and xenon bulbs make it impractical for these illumination sources to be mounted on the headset.
In the prior art, the use of light-emitting diodes as a light source has been suggested. U.S. Pat. No. 6,955,444, to Gupta, discloses the use of a headlamp with two LEDs. Each LED is mounted relative to a reflector to provide sufficient illumination on a target region. However, reflectors typically provide a diffuse illuminated region. The use of two LEDs also adds weight, cost and complexity to the device.
US Published Patent Application serial no. 2005/0099824, to Dowling, also discloses the general concept of integrating an LED into a headlamp. However, this patent application provides little detail as to implementation. Another example in the prior art is the Zeon® LED Portable High-Definition Light, available from Orascoptic, 3225 Deming Way, Suite 190, Middleton, Wis. 53562. This device incorporates a LED mounted in front of reflectors. A collimator captures the light from the LED. The use of the collimator captures a maximum percentage of the light emitted by the LED. However, illumination is not uniform over the target area. Rather the intensity of illumination peaks at the center and then gradually decreases with distance from the center of the illuminated area.
However, in the field of medical illumination devices when a doctor, surgeon or dentist, for example, utilizes a headlamp as described herein, the doctor, surgeon or dentist (i.e., a user) is in a sterilized state and cannot easily adjust the intensity of light. That is, once the illumination device is turned-on and the user (i.e., doctor, surgeon or dentist) is in a sterile state, the user is no longer able to control the intensity of the illumination from the illumination device, without having to re-sterilize himself or herself.
Thus, the user must turn-on the device before the sterilization procedure is begun and must leave the illumination on during an entire time, unless the user wishes to initiate the sterilization procedure again. In addition, leaving the light turned-on at a full intensity decreases the amount of time that the illumination device may provide the desired illumination as these illumination devices are typically operated on a battery power.
Hence, there is a need in the industry for a method and system for remotely controlling the operation of an illumination device that avoids the need to require re-sterilization when the illumination device is turned on/off. In addition, a method and system for adjusting the intensity of the illumination without requiring re- sterilization would be advantageous.